Numbers
by castlenova
Summary: Castle & Beckett return to the numbers conversation. 4x11 based on sneak peaks.
1. Chapter 1

_Just a small story, to honour tomorrow's return of Castle. Enjoy._

_CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE_

"So he did the deed before he took a dive..." Beckett said sardonically, moving to walk away. Castle smirked.

"Was he with one of my ex-wives because, this, probably an under-reaction..." he said and Lanie snorted into her lapel. Beckett bit her bottom lip, trying her best not to laugh. That was the thing about Castle, he was always able to make her laugh. Even when she didn't want to.

"Come on Castle, let's go see if you're right." she said quickly, letting her face break into a smile when he couldn't see her. She stepped through the front door with her head down, him following behind her.

"I know you're smiling up there." he said and damn it, she could hear the bastard grinning. She smiled again. He was good, she had to give him that.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She could see where he was coming from, she could understand that he held honesty in high regard but she couldn't do that to Ryan. But then in the back of her mind, she wondered if she wouldn't want to know if she was in his position.

That was why she had blurted out that sentence about them getting married, not that he'd even been phased by that statement. Oh no. He'd latched onto that 'all' comment and now she was in an argument about their 'numbers'.

"Men," she said with a grin and walked away from him. He raised an eyebrow and followed after her.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Castle sat down next to her in the break room, sighing as he did, pushing a cup of coffee her way. She smiled and said a quiet thanks as he did.

"What a case, huh?" he offered as he picked up his own cup. She nodded and mirrored his movement.

"Oh yeah." she wheezed, stretching her legs under the table, careful not to brush off of him. Castle was quiet for a moment, thinking back to their earlier conversation with Ryan. He'd taken it rather well, went home to meet Jenny and talk it through with her. Esposito had gotten a text an hour later saying everything was good and that he'd see them on Sunday.

"I'm glad they worked it out." Castle said carefully, not wanting to get back into that conversation.

"You're just glad you still have a party to go to on Sunday!" Beckett grinned back at him and he smirked.

"So are you." he replied quickly and she looked away. Once again he had called her up. She looked back at him and nodded.

"Yeah, I am actually. It'll be nice to have the gang altogether for a happy occasion." she said and he snorted.

"Jeez, it's been a while since you were at a wedding hasn't it? And you clearly weren't at either of mine!"

"You know, I was full sure my name was on the guest list but when I went up they wouldn't let me in." she joked, raising her eyebrows at him and he gave her a look of horror.

"You're kidding me? I knew I should have hired better planners, would have saved me some grief. One appearance from you would have called the whole thing off..." he trailed off purposely because she was looking at him with a sweet smile on her face. He returned it with one of his own before taking another sip of his coffee.

"So..." he started, "Now that my date has ditched me to go out with some hockey player, why don't we go together on Sunday?" he said in that confident tone he had but there was a small hint of nervousness. Beckett smirked.

"I'm the back-up Castle? Way to make a girl feel special..."

He looked at her, not sure how he was supposed to answer that. Technically speaking Alexis had put dibs on his plus one months ago, and Beckett would have known that.

"You know I was going to ask you to come with me anyway right?" he said quickly. She looked at him and he continued, nodding his head, "Yeah. I mean we were both going anyway, there's a pretty high chance that Ryan put all of us at the same table so the three of us could easily have gone together. Or, I could have grounded Alexis tonight and whisked you off on Sunday. This of course, was assuming you had beaten off all of the eager parties vying for your plus one."

She knew he had come up with that answer right there, on the spot - she had no doubt of it. The same way that she had no doubt the sentiment and everything he'd said was perfectly honest and true. She smirked back at him.

"The eager parties were few Castle, and I would have said no to them anyway"

"Why?"

"Because I was hoping that my _partner_ was going to step up to the plate." she emphasised the word partner and he nodded his head.

"Just point me to the plate." he said smartly and she took another sip of her coffee. Would she do it now? Yeah, why not. She reached and tore two scraps of paper out of a magazine in front of her and handed one to him. He looked at it, puzzled, and even more so when she handed him her spare pen.

"I want your number." she said simply and recognition washed over his face. He fought back a sly smirk as he picked up the pen, quickly scribbling something on the page and placing his hand over it. She did the same.

"You want to swap or...just turn over on three?" She couldn't believe that he sounded nervous. She would have thought that this was like all of his birthdays coming at once. She shrugged.

"Just turn over."

He nodded and counted to three. They both turned over and removed their hands. Their eyes widened simultaneously and at the exact same moment they exclaimed loudly to each other,

"Seven?"

"Eleven?"

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

_There's probably one more chapter in this. Review would make my day…_


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry about delay in updating this. To the person who (I think) bemoaned my lack of the word Spoiler in my description, in my defence I did write "4x11 based on sneak peek". I thought that would have communicated the same message but apologise if indeed it did not._

_Also I think people may shout UNREALISTIC when they read the rest of this but there you go. I probably should have made both numbers a little higher. Oh well, too late now!_

_Also, it's been a while since I did a rewatch so I may have forgotten something that will totally nullify some of what I've written below – be gentle with it, ok?_

_ CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE_

They both looked at each other in amazement. She looked back down at his sheet again and he at hers before she shook her head.

"Seven?" she said again in disbelief and he nodded before offering his own remark.

"Eleven?"

At that she nodded too. She definitely wasn't expecting this, she wasn't expecting to have a higher number than him. In fact, she had been expecting him to have had multiples of her number. This was yet another shocking revelation about the man in front of her.

"Castle, that number's _got_ to be a lie," she said finally and he smiled, chuckling to himself.

"I'm afraid not. I told you that playboy persona was just an image."

"Well yeah but….seven? Seriously? That's, it's….what?" she was having an awful hard time processing this one. He laughed and leaned forward on his elbows, taking a deep breath while the cogs in her head turned circles around themselves. After a minute, he looked up at her and said, "Eleven?"

She blushed and looked away. He spoke again.

"Four you know. Meredith, Gina, Ellie and Kyra," he said the last name with the hint of a sigh and Beckett was brought back to the different Rick Castle she'd seen when he was confronted by the proverbial 'one that got away'. She wondered if, in years to come, he might contemplate their relationship in that way. Then she banished that thought. She had every intention of still being there in years to come.

He continued, "The other three, one was a long term high school girlfriend and the other two were brief relationships, one after Meredith and one after Gina." He shrugged his shoulders and Beckett shook her head.

"I wasn't expecting that," she said honestly and he looked at her, eyebrow raised so she continued, "I know you're not the guy that you come across as on TV or in the press but…I really would have expected you to have had at least a few one-night stands in your time." He laughed and she smiled, thankful that he hadn't taken that comment personally.

"No, I was always more of a relationship kind of guy. And then after Meredith, I had a kid so I wasn't going to be exposing her to that kind of thing unless I was damn sure I liked the person. What about you? I know of what, one, two, three, three of yours. Maybe four?"

She raised an eyebrow and signalled for him to go on.

"Well, Josh obviously. Then Will and Demming," he said and she nodded along, letting him know that he was right. When he didn't offer a fourth name she asked him.

"Who was the fourth?"

He swallowed hard.

"Well, I'm not 100% sure about it and I don't want you to shoot me but…Royce?"

She bit her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded slowly, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"How did you know?"

"When you spoke to him on the phone that time, told him you'd loved him. You said it was just an act but…" he shrugged and she nodded her head, swallowing hard again.

"He was my superior officer, it shouldn't have happened but, well, these things do, don't they?" she didn't sound too thrilled about it and Castle smiled, nodding to her. Yes they did happen.

"So who were the rest?" he asked her, a smirk on his face. She laughed, and sat back in her chair, counting out on her fingers, a move that made Castle a little uncomfortable. She held up four fingers to signify the ones he'd mentioned then proceeded to tick off.

"Two boyfriends in high school, one in college, a guy I met in Russia when I did a semester there, uh, when I was in the Academy I was with a guy for a while before I met Royce. Then, I met a lawyer one day when I had to give evidence in court and one other guy that I saw for a while after my mom died. He was, there was nothing there, it just…well, you know." She looked away suddenly very sheepish to have given him her sexual history so far, even more mortified by the fact that it was more eventful than his.

"Why are you so coy?" he asked suddenly and she looked back at him, eyebrows raised.

"Seriously Castle? This is not exactly your ordinary afternoon coffee conversation!" she exclaimed and he shrugged taking a sip of the aforementioned beverage. He sniffed, the coffee smell wafting into his nostrils.

"True. But then again, ordinary is no fun, you know that," he smirked and she rolled her eyes, nodding her head, deciding that this time she is not going to pander to his desire to call her 'extraordinary', not that she minded. Quite the opposite in fact. She got a little uncomfortable when he spoke long monologues about how great she was but thinking about it now, she was pretty sure that 'extraordinary' was her favourite Castle word. That and 'always' of course.

"How do you mean?" she asked, playing along. He smiled again.

"Because _you're_ extraordinary. You've no concept of ordinary."

She smiled again, a warmth seeping through her stomach at the sound of his voice. She sipped the last of her coffee and stood up, turning to the sink to wash out her cup. He remained seated, drinking the last of his coffee, certain that some form of response was coming.

She dried her mug and turned back to him, stepping around her chair to pass behind him. As she did, she stopped, laying a hand on his shoulder and leaning down slightly to murmur in his ear.

"Oh and before I forget. You can pick me up at five on Sunday. Seeing as your date cancelled on you, I'll put you out of your misery."

He turned to look up at her and smirked, standing up out of his chair so that they were just inches apart. He looked down at her, still smiling.

"I'll be there at five to five."

She smirked and stepped out past him, heading for her desk. Castle smirked to himself again and ambled out after her, not noticing Ryan and Esposito sneaking back in, such was his attention on Beckett.

The two boys walked over to the table where Castle and Beckett had been sitting, where they had mistakenly left their pieces of paper, face up, for all to see. Ryan and Esposito were surprised at both numbers.

"Man, who was sitting where?" Espo asked and Ryan quickly did some retracing. His eyes widened as he realised it.

"Whoa!" His exclamation confirmed Esposito's suspicions. He turned and looked at the two in question. He was sitting on the edge of her desk, just in front of her legs his arms waving widely and Beckett was laughing loudly. He pulled out a pen and adjusted both numbers up one. He turned to Ryan.

"I have a feeling they're going to add each other to their lists at your wedding," he said and Ryan nodded.

"I think Karpowski's already taking bets."

The two boys grinned and wandered back to the Precinct, both determined to keep an eye on their two colleagues before placing some well analysed bets in the pool.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

_So that's the end of it, hope everyone enjoyed it. I'm hoping to have another story on the go soon. Watch this space. Or some space. _

_Happy New Year everyone!_


End file.
